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Neocaridina Blue Dream - Feeding schedule help

Marcia

Member
Joined
11 Jul 2021
Messages
40
Location
South Yorkshire
Hello everyone. We've added our first ever creatures in our aquarium today! Three very tiny beautiful Neocaridina Blue Dream, they are around 1-1.5cm.

We did the dripping acclimation for a total of 5 hours and now they are actively exploring the 77x45x30cm tank all to themselves.
Tank has been heavily planted from Day 1 and water parameters have been pH7, Ammonia 0, Nitrite O and Nitrate 0 for 5 days now.
As per advised, we're keeping the lights off and also not feeding them today.

Regarding feeding, I'm a bit confused about giving them everything they need. I would appreciate your help, please.

I've read about Bacter AE, Mineral Junkie, Complete food, dry leaves, blanched veggies, etc.

How can I make a schedule to fit all that please?
How often and how much of each should I feed them in order to give them everything they need?

Sorry if it's a basic question, I'm really trying to read everything I can but I'm getting confused now...

Thank you.
Marcia

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Hello everyone. We've added our first ever creatures in our aquarium today! Three very tiny beautiful Neocaridina Blue Dream, they are around 1-1.5cm.

We did the dripping acclimation for a total of 5 hours and now they are actively exploring the 77x45x30cm tank all to themselves.
Tank has been heavily planted from Day 1 and water parameters have been pH7, Ammonia 0, Nitrite O and Nitrate 0 for 5 days now.
As per advised, we're keeping the lights off and also not feeding them today.

Regarding feeding, I'm a bit confused about giving them everything they need. I would appreciate your help, please.

I've read about Bacter AE, Mineral Junkie, Complete food, dry leaves, blanched veggies, etc.

How can I make a schedule to fit all that please?
How often and how much of each should I feed them in order to give them everything they need?

Sorry if it's a basic question, I'm really trying to read everything I can but I'm getting confused now...

Thank you.
Marcia

View attachment 172159
Hi Marcia,

For 3 shrimp at the beginning, they'll probably forage plenty for themselves, if anything I'd suggest maybe getting some more, to give yourself some diversity when they breed :)

Once you get a sizeable colony on the go, is when it can be really helpful to feed, dried leaves are something you may also consider, as they'll contribute helpful bacteria and give the shrimp something to graze on.
 
Same as above really. If you find they're having problems moulting I'd feed more minerals. I have dried leaves in my tank all the time as they'll graze on them in between feeds. I'd only feed what they can eat in a few hours. Any longer and it will start to pollute the water.
 
Likewise, I didn’t feed mine at all to start with - I only started to add nettle tops/crustagran when numbers were rapidly growing and they were obviously starting to use my floating plants as dinner…
 
Right now I'm rotating nettle sticks, mulberry, mineral food and a glasgarten shrimp general food, it gets very addictive watching them become a shrimp ball around the food :)

If you do decide to go down the dedicated shrimp food route, you aren't going to go wrong with dennerle, glasgarten, Ebi and more.

The shrimp scene has grown leaps and bounds, it's amazing how quickly and popular they've become even in the last few years
 
Thank you everyone for your great advices!

I’m definitely going to order some dry leaves.

I forgot to mention before, my water is moderately soft, would I need to add minerals to their diet soon?

And what about Bacter AE, all shops claim that they are indispensable, are they?

My tank is only 1 month old so we’re taking things very slowly. Plants seems to be growing fine despite no CO2, so we took a leap and ordered the three shrimps. We’re over the moon with them! But the main plan is to add 7-10 Tetras and a dwarf pleco/catfish eventually, so how many more shrimps could we get without overstocking? We’ve got an Oase 250 Biomaster filter for our 87L tank.

Thank you all again.
Márcia
 
Thank you everyone for your great advices!

I’m definitely going to order some dry leaves.

I forgot to mention before, my water is moderately soft, would I need to add minerals to their diet soon?

And what about Bacter AE, all shops claim that they are indispensable, are they?

My tank is only 1 month old so we’re taking things very slowly. Plants seems to be growing fine despite no CO2, so we took a leap and ordered the three shrimps. We’re over the moon with them! But the main plan is to add 7-10 Tetras and a dwarf pleco/catfish eventually, so how many more shrimps could we get without overstocking? We’ve got an Oase 250 Biomaster filter for our 87L tank.

Thank you all again.
Márcia
Shrimp bioload is minimal, hypothetically speaking, without taking into account the fish, you could comfortably have hundreds of shrimp.

At that point you'd then be able to get rid of lower grade colours as the population booms.

I like to start with at least 6 shrimp, but ideally 10 would be a great number to consider.

Bacter ae isn't essential, it can be used well but it can quickly foul the water up if overdosed.
 
Also not fed my cherry shrimps a bean since going in 2 months ago and they are now breeding, I did put in leaves at the initial setup but it's the wood that grew the most fluff. A hungry shrimp is one that eats algae the best too.
 
Thank you everyone for your great advices!

I’m definitely going to order some dry leaves.

I forgot to mention before, my water is moderately soft, would I need to add minerals to their diet soon?

And what about Bacter AE, all shops claim that they are indispensable, are they?

My tank is only 1 month old so we’re taking things very slowly. Plants seems to be growing fine despite no CO2, so we took a leap and ordered the three shrimps. We’re over the moon with them! But the main plan is to add 7-10 Tetras and a dwarf pleco/catfish eventually, so how many more shrimps could we get without overstocking? We’ve got an Oase 250 Biomaster filter for our 87L tank.

Thank you all again.
Márcia

I can't really add to the advice given so far - I think @Aqua360's advice in post #3 is spot on. Three shrimp will be fine without target feeding (though as mentioned above I'd up that to at least 10 to ensure you get some genetic diversity in the breeding). Once you get well over 100, I think occasional target feeding is beneficial to both the quality and quantity of offspring.

Dried leaves are great, and if your water is soft, mulberry leaves and nettles leaves both have higher levels of calcium than most other leaves. You might still want to check your water report to confirm that the dGH levels are sufficient for Neo's (ideally 5-6 dKH or above) to prevent any moulting issues - if it's substantially lower, then adding a remin product to water changes might be beneficial.
 
I can't really add to the advice given so far - I think @Aqua360's advice in post #3 is spot on. Three shrimp will be fine without target feeding (though as mentioned above I'd up that to at least 10 to ensure you get some genetic diversity in the breeding). Once you get well over 100, I think occasional target feeding is beneficial to both the quality and quantity of offspring.
Hi Wooki thank you for your advice. 100 shrimps! :eek::oops: how long would it take to reach this number with initial 10 shrimps? Maybe I was too naive to think that the population would stay low for a while? But I can see the appeal, this morning I can only see 1 shrimp at time... 😒 we feel like adding more. I'm just so scared of killing them (first tank ever) so I've bought 3 to see if I can keep them alive first.

Dried leaves are great, and if your water is soft, mulberry leaves and nettles leaves both have higher levels of calcium than most other leaves. You might still want to check your water report to confirm that the dGH levels are sufficient for Neo's (ideally 5-6 dKH or above) to prevent any moulting issues - if it's substantially lower, then adding a remin product to water changes might be beneficial.
OK, mulberry leaves in the basket 👍 any mineral supplement would you recommend? My dKH is 4.

Thanks.
 
Shrimp bioload is minimal, hypothetically speaking, without taking into account the fish, you could comfortably have hundreds of shrimp.

At that point you'd then be able to get rid of lower grade colours as the population booms.

I like to start with at least 6 shrimp, but ideally 10 would be a great number to consider.

Bacter ae isn't essential, it can be used well but it can quickly foul the water up if overdosed.

Hi Aqua360, thanks again for your advices. Just one more question: Now that we've got the Blue Dream, we should only get more Blue shrimps? Or would it be OK to add reds?

And erm... how do you "get rid of the lower grade"...?
 
Hi Aqua360, thanks again for your advices. Just one more question: Now that we've got the Blue Dream, we should only get more Blue shrimps? Or would it be OK to add reds?

And erm... how do you "get rid of the lower grade"...?
You can add other colours if you wish, but if they're the same type of shrimp (neocaridina) they'll breed and revert to colourless or drab brown in most cases, so it's advisable to avoid mixing if you want to keep colours strong.

To get rid of lower grades, it's simply a case of netting out shrimplets with inferior colour and patterns, and swapping them to the LFS or friends. Actual culling isn't required, which is nice.

There are many shrimp guides on colour grading, what you'll tend to find is that lower grades have more transparent shells etc, whereas higher grades have more of the body covered including shell and legs.
 
Hi Wooki thank you for your advice. 100 shrimps! :eek::oops: how long would it take to reach this number with initial 10 shrimps? Maybe I was too naive to think that the population would stay low for a while? But I can see the appeal, this morning I can only see 1 shrimp at time... 😒 we feel like adding more. I'm just so scared of killing them (first tank ever) so I've bought 3 to see if I can keep them alive first.

They're pretty hardy, and your tank is fairly mature, so I'm sure they'll be fine. It's hard to say how long it'll take to get to 100. If there are no fish to predate on the baby shrimp, you can get to that number fairly quickly, depending on how many you start with. If you want the numbers to increase more quickly initially, then try and hold off adding any fish until the shrimp get established.

Shrimp are great, I love them. 100+ sounds a lot, but it's not really, a lot of them are hidden amongst the plants most of the time.

OK, mulberry leaves in the basket 👍 any mineral supplement would you recommend? My dKH is 4.

Thanks.

The dKH is less important, its the dGH you want - your water company should publish this for your local area on their website.
 
Shrimp are great, I love them. 100+ sounds a lot, but it's not really, a lot of them are hidden amongst the plants most of the time.
You've got us all excited to buy some more now!
The dKH is less important, its the dGH you want - your water company should publish this for your local area on their website.
Oh, I've checked on Yorkshire Water, 38.1 mg/l calcium so 2.1 dGH. Bit too low isn't it? Should I get some supplement or can I add crushed corals (got some at home but not in use), maybe? Thanks
 
You've got us all excited to buy some more now!

Oh, I've checked on Yorkshire Water, 38.1 mg/l calcium so 2.1 dGH. Bit too low isn't it? Should I get some supplement or can I add crushed corals (got some at home but not in use), maybe? Thanks

Given that value, you may want to consider adding a little more dGH using something like Salty Shrimp - or buying the raw salts (Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Sulphate [aka Epsom Salts]) if you feel up to mixing your own. You can use the crushed coral if you like, it just makes it a little more difficult to control if that's something you want to be able to do.

Given your other query on whether you could add a different colour of shrimp. Whilst its best not to add another type of Neocaridina as @Aqua360 explained, given your tap water parameters, you could consider adding a Caridina species further down the line when you have more experience of keeping shrimp, as the two won't interbreed.

I'm running (via RO) water parameters of 2dKH and 6dGH purposely (in part) so I can keep both types of shrimp - in my case Bloody Mary's and Black Panda Taiwan Bee's.
 
Given that value, you may want to consider adding a little more dGH using something like Salty Shrimp
I'm reading the instructions and reviews for the Salty Shrimp, I'm not sure if I can dose it correctly... o_O
Do I need a TDS meter?
At the moment I'm doing water changes twice a week. Do I dose it according to the water I'm adding back into the tank every time?

Is Shrimp King Bee Salt GH+ the same thing? Is ok for Neocaridinas?

Thank you.
 
I'm reading the instructions and reviews for the Salty Shrimp, I'm not sure if I can dose it correctly... o_O
Do I need a TDS meter?
At the moment I'm doing water changes twice a week. Do I dose it according to the water I'm adding back into the tank every time?

Is Shrimp King Bee Salt GH+ the same thing? Is ok for Neocaridinas?

Thank you.

Yeah, the Bee Shrimp stuff will be fine, you just want to Gh only stuff, not the Gh/KH version. Yes, you are just adding it for the water you are changing.

According to their website, you add 3g (roughly half a teaspoon) per 20 litres to achieve 6dGH. Since you already have 2dGH out of the tap, I would halve the standard dose. How much water do you change each time?
 
Yeah, the Bee Shrimp stuff will be fine, you just want to Gh only stuff, not the Gh/KH version. Yes, you are just adding it for the water you are changing.

According to their website, you add 3g (roughly half a teaspoon) per 20 litres to achieve 6dGH. Since you already have 2dGH out of the tap, I would halve the standard dose. How much water do you change each time?

I change 50% of my 87L tank. :)
 
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